AN award-winning film director resorted to real-life violence by torching the Brook home of a man who failed to repay a loan of £40,000, a court was told.

Nigel Roffe-Barker, 45, whose latest film Asylum stars Tariq Larousi from EastEnders, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to arson.

Victim David Port, from Bowlhead Green Road, had known Roffe-Barker's wife, Melloney for five years and she loaned him the money for a business venture which failed.

Her husband desperately needed the money for another film project he was working on but repeated promises to settle the debt were not kept.

Mr Barry Kogan, prosecuting, said on the day before the fire, Roffe-Barker made around 35 phone calls to Mr Port and his wife, Amy, and also made abusive calls to Mr Port's elderly parents in Dorset.

One message to him warned: "I am going to kill your parents unless you give me £20,000 today. Remember I know you are a liar and I'm already planning my revenge. Meditate on the death of your parents, you liar."

Another said: "Liar, liar house on fire."

Mr Kogan said Roffe-Barker set off on his motorbike for Mr Port's house in Bowlhead Green Road in Brook, stopping at a garage in Horsham to buy a can of petrol before setting fire to the conservatory.

Mr Kogan added that: "Mrs Barker had put some pressure on Mr Port in the proper way for the money to be repaid.

"According to Mr Port, an agreement had been reached whereby he would repay some, once another project he was involved in came to fruition.

"The defendant and Mr Port only met on a few occasions, the last being Christmas, 2002, and there had been no previous conflict."

On the day of the fire, Mr Port and his wife left home in the morning to attend a funeral in Newbury.

Around 1 pm, a neighbour spotted fire and smoke billowing from the Ports' house. Firefighters discovered it had been burning for 20 minutes and feared someone could be trapped inside or that it would spread to the nearby cottages.

Mr Kogan said: "The officer in charge said the person who set the fire must have had complete disregard for anyone on the premises or those living nearby."

Guildford Crown Court heard that four large propane gas canisters were just metres from the blaze and had any of then caught light, there would have been a huge fireball.

Roffe-Barker was arrested after the Ports told police about the abusive messages in the previous 24 hours.

He told officers: "This is a stitch-up. I want to speak to the fraud squad."

The court heard that Roffe-Barker of Burlington Lane, Chiswick, West London, had suffered from bi-polar disorder for years and oscillated between periods of high elation and deep depression.

Mr Andrew Turton, defending, said: "The fact that there was a debt and promises kept being broken, even up to the day of this offence, are matter that were having an effect on this defendant.

"It would affect any person even of robust health; it was a serious matter.

"At the time, the defendant was undertaking the making of a film which required the resources he had lost.

"All those matters had a part to play but coincided with a reoccurrence of his bi-polar disorder."

A doctor's report confirmed that at the time of the fire Roffe-Barker was suffering from mental illness but Mr Turton said he had recovered enough to be full of remorse and sorrow for what he had done.

"He has now been in custody for five-and-a-half months, perhaps the court can take the view that he has suffered enough," said Mr Turton.

Judge John Bull, QC, told Roffe-Barker: "You had been working extremely hard as a film-maker for 19 months without a break.

"You had been trying to get Mr Port to keep his promise and you were in desperate need for the money he had failed to repay.

"I bear in mind you have suffered from depression for years and oscillated between periods of high elation and deep depression associated with bi-polar.

"You are a film writer, director and editor, and have made feature films, TV films, and screenplays and you are clearly someone of undoubted ability and considerable intelligence.

"You were motivated by a very strong sense of betrayal. In your view, Mr Port had failed to repay the loan, had given your wife a catalogue of shifting excuses and broken promises.

"But this was a planned and deliberate act of arson and this offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified."